Sunday, July 13, 2014

Banded Mongoose

The banded mongoose is found in large parts of East Africa, including most of Kenya and Tanzania, South-Central Africa and in the savannas of West Africa. It has grayish/brown fur and brown to black horizontal bars across the back. Compared to the rest of the body, the snout and limbs are darker and the underparts are lighter. 
Banded mongoose. Photo by Jack Duckworth
It eats beetles, millipedes, termites, birds eggs, small rodents and fruit, and lives in colonies of 15 to 20, unlike most mongoose which are solitary. 
Banded mongoose in Serengeti NP. Photo by John Mirau.
Photo by Esmee Tooke
Photo by Mark Edwards.
Interestingly, in Kenya, they have been found to forage with baboons and removing parasites from warthogs. We saw them on a number of occasions, but by far the best observations were in the Serengeti, where they have their highest density.  

3 comments:

  1. Mongooses (mongeese?) remind me of Kipling's story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," and so I've always associated them with India, where the story takes place. Fun to see them in Africa.

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    1. We had them in Hawaii, so I also associate them with the Big Island where I saw a lot of them.

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  2. I thought they were an Indian native, too. The warthogs must love them.

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